BY Rita Okonoboh
The federal government says it is making efforts to ensure the safety of Nigerians in China.
Recently, there have been videos in circulation on how Nigerians are being maltreated in China over the suspicion that they might have contracted coronavirus.
At the media briefing of the presidential task force on COVID-19 in Abuja on Friday, Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, said the government is aware of the reports of harassment of Nigerians in China.
He said the federal government, through the ministry of foreign affairs, is taking diplomatic steps to address the situation.
“I can assure you that he [Geoffrey Onyeama, the minister of foreign affairs] has taken up that matter seriously. The information available to me is that he met with the Chinese ambassador yesterday to convey to him our concern,” he said.
“I saw some of the clips being run on social media and I must commend the efforts of some of our officers there – our diplomatic officers in China. One of the videos I saw was of one of our officers holding the Nigerian passport and he was confronting a Chinese official and asking him whether he had the right to do what he was doing. I think we are taking steps and the first step diplomatically was to invite the ambassador to formally lodge a complaint. I believe that we will receive positive response to that.
“I can assure you that it is the responsibility of the Nigerian government to protect our citizens wherever they are on the face of the earth. We would not renege on that responsibility. We would do a briefing to assure them and secure their protection until such a time that if they desire to return home, we would also work towards facilitating that. A lot of discussions are going on. We’ve asked the Diaspora Commission to network and ensure that they get the details of our people wherever they are through the embassies, so that we can have a comprehensive list of those that want to return.”
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